Kenandy, Inc. Closes Series A Led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Sandra Kurtzig, founder of ASK, launches new venture for social manufacturing in the cloud

REDWOODCITY, Calif. – Kenandy, Inc. today announces the closing of a $10.5 million Series A round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) with salesforce.com and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati. Headed by software industry pioneer Sandra Kurtzig, previously founder, CEO and chairman of the ASK Group, Kenandy offers a new breed of manufacturing management application built for the cloud. Ray Lane, managing partner at KPCB, will also join Kenandy’s board of directors.

“Kenandy presents an exciting combination of Sandra’s proven ability to innovate and execute in a market space that has lacked any significant innovation for over 20 years,” said Lane. “By horizontally integrating all aspects of supply chain management, cloud computing and social media will dramatically change the landscape of manufacturing business worldwide.”

Kenandy delivers its next-generation application by combining the core manufacturing functions for inventory management, engineering, purchasing, production and requirements planning with the mobile and social capabilities of Force.com, salesforce.com’s cloud computing platform. The result is a cloud-based solution that meets the critical need for collaborative manufacturing in today’s world of global, distributed operations and supply chain networks.

Kurtzig pioneered the way for the first generation of manufacturing management systems with her company ASK and its product MANMAN. That product helped to structure the operations of vertically integrated manufacturing companies and enabled them to achieve higher levels of efficiencies within the four walls of their operations.

“Today’s manufacturing is collaborative. It doesn’t happen inside four walls,” said Sandra Kurtzig, Kenandy founder, chairman and CEO. “By building the core manufacturing applications on a social platform, we’re providing the structure to use the new tools of social media and collaboration for greater efficiencies in global supply chain networks.”

Kurtzig has added two industry veterans to Kenandy, Rod Butters as CMO and Pravin Kumar as CTO. Butters brings over 20 years experience bringing new technologies to market, including enterprise infrastructure, SaaS, CRM and virtualization. Kumar adds an extensive background in developing and delivering world-class products for supply chain collaboration, SaaS, CRM and consumer sites.

Kenandy has operated in stealth mode for over a year. A limited product introduction to select prospects has garnered a positive reception with companies looking to leverage the cost benefits of the cloud with the communication benefits of social media. Initial customer deployments are expected to reach production before the end of the third quarter this year.